First they went after the confederates. Then the Founding Fathers. Now Columbus.

What they are trying to do is erase western civilization, to replace it with some utopian socialist system based on some fraudulent idea of “justice” that has as much reality as Atlantis. What they’ll end up doing it getting more people like Trump elected, and very likely getting a whole lot of people injured and killed as they try to bring about their little revolution.

You want to take down monuments to Confederates? I’m right there with you. Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee were villains who took up arms not in the cause of freedom but to perpetuate and spread slavery. But when you go after Washington and Lincoln and Columbus? Screw you, buddy. You’re moving people like me into the “very definitely against *you*” category. How do you think it’s going to turn out when you’ve set the majority of the country at your throats? When you’ve done such a fantastic job of dividing politics into Us vs. Them and then made sure to alienate the majority into the Them category?

It’s one thing to tear down statues of Stalin and Saddam when their regimes come down. It’s quite another to tear down historic monuments to your nations heroes. And what these little pissants don’t seem to recognize is that if they normalize the destruction of historical artifacts, then *their* favorite things become fair play.

The solution is simple, direct, and honest: let the voters of the relevant communities decide. This is very much a ‘cultural’ matter, not an infrastructure or resource issue. These statues and monuments don’t do anything but take up space and collect bird crap. So, the voters of Charlottesville and Boston and Richmond and on and on ought to decide what appears in their (and no one else’s) public space. Governors, legislatures, mayors, city councils (as well as any and all outside agitators), should speak their piece and then let voters vote.

Opposers of the results of such a vote could go pound sand cuz the (relevant) people will have spoken.

If such a thing had happened in New Orleans or Orleans parish the four monuments taken down by edict might still be standing today.

Scottlowther

Small problem with your solution: the kind of people who’ll put on face masks to go smash things with sledgehammers in the dark of night are the kind of people who are unlikely to accept a referendum if the people vote “wrong.”

Henry Quirk

Yeah, but the nimrods are gonna do what they’re gonna do no matter what, so…

Scottlowther

So, provide to a random assortment of monuments trained guard shoggoths. Next morning go out and pick up the dropped sledgehammers and chains, donate to Goodwill along with any undigested articles of clothing. When the shoggoths get too big, airlift to a special preserve where the shoggie can roam and eat at leisure, say, Tehran or Evergreen State College.

The Ancient Greeks, who had their own take on “direct democracy,” had a solution for that.

Unspoken Yellow

To be fair, Colombus is not the greatest person to be celebrated. After all much of his story was mythicized. What gets glossed over is his mathematical incompetence and the atrocities he and expeditions made. He also never landed in North America to boot.

So while Colombus should not be forgotten as a key figure in the era of exploration, his legacy does not warrant a national holiday. Other European explorers came first (i.e. Leif Erikson) or were more relevant to the story of North America (e.g. Giovanni Caboto aka John Cabot, another Italian but worked for the English crown).

Scottlowther

While that’s all true, those going smashy-smashy aren’t interested in erecting “story correcting” monuments to yet more Europeans. Their goal is the complete erasure of history, replacing it with a comic book.

Unspoken Yellow

I doubt that wholly is the case. Erasing history in my mind is to hide or minimize shameful acts of the in-group or the positive aspects of the out-group. My take on the vandals is that they are trying to start a discussion on the merits of the pedestal we put Colombus on in this day and age.

Scottlowther

> they are trying to start a discussion…

… with a sledgehammer? Any argument made with a hammer may be countered with a hammer. Or a shotgun.

These idiot want to over-write the current historical narrative with a far more fictional one of their own, one where the native Americans were peaceful wizards living with all the colors of the wind in cahoots with nature and were suddenly and intentionally wiped out by EEEEEVIL white men who had sailed down to Africa and had bodily stolen millions of Africans over the utter and complete objections of their fellows.

sferrin

“My take on the vandals is that they are trying to start a discussion on the merits of the pedestal we put Colombus on in this day and age.”
ROFL! Wow. You give them way too much credit. Like attributing a baby flinging it’s food at the wall as a new form of cooking.

se jones

Major MAJOR kudos to the Chicago Tribune for having the balls to publish this 100% right on column:

While we’re toppling offensive symbols, what about the Democratic Party?

True, however the video doesn’t explain how or why those values changed. Such an explanation would be more enlightening. Additionally, being pro-small government is a vague value to have as there are a number of interpretations of and reasons for wanting small governments. E.g. what levels of government do you want to be small: the federal, state, or municipal?

Thucydides_of_Athens

The press freaked out when President Trump called out “both” sides of the fracas, and do everything to deflect attention and blame away from Antifa. What they don’t seem to realize is the Communists who make up Antifa are more akin to the Khmer Rouge than the Bolsheviks, and the political, media, academic and bureaucratic classes are not going to be in “control” of the revolution, but marched out to the Killing Fields. A preview of what Post Revolutionary America will look like under Antifa:

Another rare piece of early Dyna Soar color art. This one shows the Dyna Soar heading to space atop the centaur upper stage of an Atlas booster. And if you think you are seeing corrugations on the back of the spaceplane, you are correct. At this stage in the design process the Dyna Soar *did* […]

So the media is currently ulcerating over Trump suggesting that he’d like to see NFL owners fire players who decide to disrespect the US flag & anthem before games. Here’s the thing: 1: It’s the players right to disrespect the flag, the anthem, the US. 2: It’s any citizens right to say that he’d like […]

Yes, I’ve posted these before. But I feel it’s important for everyone to maintain a proper level of understanding of the encabulator, the turbo-encabulator and the retro-encabulator. And of course once you have an encabulator, you’ll need to diagnose it from time to time: There have of course been advances in the field […]

Argh. Facebook is not my favorite thing. But, apparently, it’s where all the cool kids hang out, so the Aerospace Projects Review Facebook page that I cobbled together years ago, I’ve started posting things in again. One of the weird things about Facebook is that you (apparently) can’t see a page unless you are signed […]

Oh, boy! Mayhem! A Group Of 62 Catholics Has Accused The Pope Of Spreading Heresy Not being Catholic, I have no dog in this fight. Still, it’s always entertaining when religious leaders tell other religious leaders they’re wrong. Wacky hijinks often ensue.

So, Star Trek Discovery plopped onto the airwaves tonight. My review: It was certainly pretty, but all those visuals were spoiled by a whole lot of “WTF am I looking at?” Especially with the “Klingons” who bore almost no relationship to any prior iteration of the Klingons, in biology, aesthetics or culture. Heck, they even […]

… in a drone: This is pretty much exactly the sort of footage that would have been impossible to get prior to the current generation of drones. So just imagine what people will be able to film once the batteries for drones are actually *good,* with the power and energy density of chemical fuels like […]

OK, let’s say your town is plagued by a transdimensional monster that takes the form of a killer psychotic clown. Who would be the best person to try to destroy this menace? That’s right, the goddamn Batman: And because why not: Bill Nye just walked into our elevator while I was snap chatting.. pic.twitter.com/LwCOITAEft […]

A deli worker was attacked, someone came across the counter and slashed at him with a knife. He fought back with a knife of his own, and the other guy got the worse of it. So, what happened? Did the city of New York throw the deli worker a ticker tape parade? Give him the […]